The U.S.'s allies' contribution to the coalition is steadily decreasing.
It will be interesting to see what effect this has on the U.S. presence in Iraq; i.e., whether we wind up having to increase our presence to make up for the drawdown of others.
There is a good graph in the article I linked to showing how many troops come from each country. By my figuring, the total is around 20,000-21,000.
I especially liked this quote:
What we need if we intend to have this global war on terror include some additional military campaigns is substantive military participation by allies and money," says Dr. Bacevich. "A coalition matters to the degree that it brings something substantive to the table."
This is so much more sensible than Deroy Murdock's statement:
None of America's 33 partners ever had to send so much as a Q-Tip to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. The fact that any nation assigns even one citizen to fight shoulder to shoulder with U.S. GIs should elicit celebration and gratitude...
which essentially states that the perception of a coalition is what actually matters, not any concrete contribution than any coalition member makes.
More of the non-reality-based community, I suppose.
That is all.
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